The use of English on Ireland's signs
All uppercase versus lowercase – readability and practicality
When upper- and mixed-case words occupied the same sign area Forbes and his colleagues found a significant improvement in reading distance with the mixed-case words.” (Garvey 2006)
Above: Illustrates the advantage of upper and lowercase over all uppercase – in terms of word shapes produced. Both words occupy the same sign area.
Designers have long held the reasoning that upper and lowercase setting has a pronounced word shape advantage over all uppercase setting…
“Good research, especially practical, in the field will clearly show the advantage of the use of lowercase.” Gerard Unger, type designer and author of the Netherlands’ road traffic signs (Reil 2006a).
Letter spacing should be increased when using uppercase text, this allows the eye to recognise individual letter shapes, where word shape is not a guide. Where this is used the effect negates the increased size factor achieved by an uppercase word. American studies (Lees 1970) show that all text in highway signs required spacing as much as 40% increased over standard spacing – to achieve equal legibility. This has not been followed in Irish signs, with the uppercase being spaced in a tight, if variable, setting. If this is followed sign sizes may need to increase, or – more practically – upper and lowercase should be used.
“Although capital letters were the norm for most signs up to the 1960s, the necessity for recognition of signs at greater speeds on motorways led to research into the use of lowercase letters and symbols (The Anderson Committee 1962).
“Legibility tests for motorways, airports, hospitals another major complexes suggest that people reading words and phrases from a distance recognize them as much for their shape as for their content” (Barker 2000)
